Indictment: Plot To Rob Postal Worker Was Planned For Days

DENVER (CBS4) – The robbery of a postal worker who was held at knifepoint while making holiday deliveries last year came was planned days ahead of time, new documents show.

The robbery happened in Denver on Dec. 17 near 22nd Avenue and Oneida Street in Denver, right by a blue postal box. The mail carrier driving his postal truck had stopped to collect what was inside the box when the suspects threatened him with a knife.

After the holdup the thieves took off with a key that is used to unlock postal boxes. The key that unlocks any postal box within a specific zip code.

According to an indictment, Cheston Foster was the mastermind behind the plot.

Text messages between he and his co-conspirators were gathered as evidence to show Foster began planning the crime two days before it was carried out.

After staking out the postal box, the first text from Foster to “Robber No. 2” reads: “I got something for us…hit me.”

The indictment also includes a statement from a witness who says Foster asked for a knife:

“Do you have a big knife? I need to cut open some boxes.”

The witness provided the knife, which was the same knife investigators believe was used to threaten the postal carrier less than an hour later.

This indictment reveals that there are at least three people besides Foster who were involved in the crime.

Those people, whose identities haven’t been revealed, allegedly carried out the robbery and Foster is accused of driving them all away from the scene in his SUV.

Foster is facing charges of conspiracy to commit robbery, assault and robbery of a postal service employee and theft of a postal service arrow key.